Environment and Rural Development Committee, 27 Apr 2005
Meeting date: Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Official Report
237KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (Draft)
Good morning. I welcome committee members and members of the press and public to this morning's meeting. I remind everyone to switch their mobile phones to mute. I have received apologies from Alex Johnstone.
Agenda item 1 is subordinate legislation. The draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005 are an affirmative instrument, which means that they must be approved by Parliament before they can come into force. Motion S2M-2684, in the name of Lewis Macdonald, the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, invites us to recommend to Parliament that the regulations be approved. I welcome Lewis Macdonald and his officials to the meeting. I should say that we have received no comments from the Subordinate Legislation Committee on the regulations.
I invite colleagues to ask any technical questions or seek clarification on purely technical matters. The minister and his officials are able to answer such questions now, but will not be able to do so during the debate.
It might help to pre-empt some questions if I make a few introductory comments.
These amendment regulations relate to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, which place an obligation on businesses to recover and recycle packaging waste and set targets for every year up to 2008. A key feature of the scheme is that businesses' compliance must be evidenced by packaging recovery notes, which may be issued only by waste reprocessors that have been accredited by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. That ensures that obligations are matched by genuine recovery of packaging waste.
Until 2003, there was no statutory force behind the process. However, the regulations were amended in 2003 to give the provisions statutory force and to regularise the process. That measure, which had effect from January 2004, has been welcomed. Today, we seek to amend the statutory regime that was introduced at that time in order to remove from the accreditation system the deadline by which reprocessors should submit applications, which is an unnecessary piece of red tape. At the moment, they are required to apply by 30 September for the whole of the following calendar year. That provision reflects the process that existed before the statutory regime was introduced. However, although a non-statutory deadline was helpful in the former regime, SEPA has found that a statutory deadline limits its flexibility in dealing with applications and is clearly unwelcome in practice. Such a deadline also means that delays can occur for new reprocessing companies that seek accreditation. In order to reach our targets, we need to increase national reprocessing capacity in Scotland and throughout the UK and do not want to set any unnecessary obstacles in the way of that. Taking away the deadline's statutory force and allowing packaging waste reprocessors to become accredited any time they see an opportunity to enter the market will increase our ability to meet those targets and allow things to proceed more quickly.
Those remarks have helped to clarify the purpose of the regulations. Do members have any questions?
Members indicated disagreement.
Having read the regulations and heard your opening remarks, we seem to feel that this is one of those occasions when the purpose of an instrument is quite clear. We move to the debate on the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Environment and Rural Development Committee recommends that the draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005 be approved.—[Lewis Macdonald.]
I invite colleagues to contribute to the debate.
Is it sensible just to say that the regulations seem like—
—a good thing.
I think that, having examined the issue of waste before, we would all agree that the regulations are a good thing.
Motion agreed to.
That the Environment and Rural Development Committee recommends that the draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005 be approved.
I thank the minister and his officials for attending this morning's meeting. Because the regulations are affirmative, we simply wanted you to be here to answer any questions that we might have had.
It was a pleasure.
If all business were like that, our meetings would be quick.